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Gaudeamus by John Barnes
01/02/2005 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
pub: TOR. 320 page hardback. Price: $24.95 (US). $34.95 (CAN). ISBN: 0-765-30329-9. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.tor.com
I have to confess that this is a very crazed but not too crazy book. Up until the half-way mark, it's even a fascinating read but its delivery from that point creates more problems than it solves. Private detective Travis Bismarck is a university pal and drinking buddy of the more mundane writer Doctor John Wallace (a pseudonym for author Barnes and yes, there are puns abound in this book if you want to look for them). Travis starts visiting Wallace to tell him about a case which he thinks he's in way over his head involving a newly invented device called a Gaudeamus which can act as a matter transporter with skulduggery afoot to steal the prototype. This term 'Gaudeamus' also crops as the name of a drug that enhances telepathy after sex and I'm sure you'll find other uses if you key it in through any Net search engines.
As things fall into place and Travis sorts out the theft and his own kidnapping, he also becomes friendly with the opposition, by falling in love with one of the gang no less, things are back to following past events and a lot of the tension is loss. It's one of those stories that you don't know whether to take seriously or not. Which is a shame when from a promising start it moves off into predictability and ignores a lot of what was established at the beginning as purely red herrings.
That's not to say this book isn't of interest as a study in dimensionalising characters, it's just because it stopped being such a demanding read as to what is going on. Then again, any story dealing with danger in the past tense is kinda going to lose any tension that should have been generated. Whether this book should be read purely as satire is debatable. It's almost as though Barnes changed his mind as to what was going on half way through. As the story is blended into our reality, adding SF elements that the world is changing and then doesn't really just adds to the confusion once you start thinking about it later. There's some interesting ideas in here nonetheless.
GF Willmetts
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